Posted 06/08/2007 at 12:58:59am

Blizzard is banking huge thanks mostly to the popularity of world of warcraft and the monthly subscription fee that accompanies the game. It makes good business sense for other companies to venture into the pay-to-play gaming market. X-box has its live accounts and now Vista is selling live accounts to computer users. If enough hard hitting titles are released on both 360 and PC you might be paying for a live account and a pay-to-play mmo.
There is no way that companies that are banking big on subscription fees will just up and stop charging for their services. So how do you get to play for free without losing online accounts? Only thing I can think of would be in game adds. Hey I hate in-game adds as much as the next guy, but game companies are out to sell you a product and if you enjoy the product I'm betting you pony up the cash to play. Skosh of Cowabunga

Posted 05/31/2007 at 03:12:39pm

Dell is offering Ubuntu feisty fawn for a few desktops and notebook. I'm assuming dell has selected these systems for hardware support reasons. The real shocker to me is that the price remains the same if you chose Ubuntu or windows. If you pick feisty fawn your rig probably wont support DVD playback out of the box, and come on Ubuntu is free so why no price break.
Really looking forward to this blog. I'm using Ubuntu it's newb friendly.
Skosh of Cowabunga

Posted 05/31/2007 at 01:04:32am

sc123 made a good point
"If you switch to the "Strong Don't Buy, Don't Buy, Neutral, Buy, and Strong Buy" you run the risk of doing a comparison of say, 10 monitors and having 4 Strong Buys or Neutrals - leaving the reader to wonder which is better for him/her."
If this situation were to arise I would first read the full reviews of the most expensive and least expensive gear in the "buy" and "strong-buy" categories, next I pull out a ruler and measure my wallet, I then match budget with reviews, and in the end I go further into debt.
skosh of cowabunga

Posted 05/31/2007 at 12:22:12am

Ahoy!
If the verdict-O-Meter is below an 7 I just read the pros and cons for a chuckle. Above an 7 gets a fair shake. As it stands Maximum PC seems to have 11 verdicts 1-9, 9kick-ass and 10 kick-ass(I've never seen a 10 verdict without a kick-ass stamp.)

Any verdict 6 or below just isn't a power user item(hoboparade) Verdicts of 7 or 8(Skosh of Cowabunga) verdicts 9(9 kick-ass)or 10 (sell a kidney). Well I'm sure people being paid can come up with cuter names.

In short revamp the verdict-O-Meter and state what to buy and what to forget about. As for reviews at or below 6 I feel bad just breezing over them knowing how painful it must have been to test the products. Maybe there could be some cross at the end of the mag that pulls from the below 6 reviews(just spit-ballin). Oh what ever happened to 7.1 sound?